Recent content by rusty spike

Agree with previous posters. Just completed this trip 3 weeks ago.(#1 from Edmonton to Vancouver in Sleeper Plus). 3 hours late and loved every minute of it. A trip not to be missed!

We chose the option of not staying "in the park". We detrained from the eastbound EB at Whitefish (which offers checked luggage), where the local Hertz agency had placed a car for us to pick up. They have a satellite office in the station but is not open at that hour. Due to unavailability and...

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the young family killed Sunday on the way to church and to the train crew, who through no fault of theirs, were involved. Only God knows why it happened. Maybe further investigate will shed more light on the "why". Meanwhile the...

Yes, when i signed up (June 2012) it was 32,000 bonus points plus $500 purchase requirement in first 3 months.

Yep, I have 4 words for AGR and BofA..."Thanks, but No Thanks" I might reconsider if they sweeten the pot on sign-up bonuses. (3 years ago Chase/AGR offered 32,000 points after spending $500 in new purchases). Being out here in "flyover country" with zero Amtrak service in the 6th largest U.S...

Generally speaking, negative news is always released on Friday or Saturday, since most folks are out enjoying the weekend. And most folks, IMO, view this transition in a negative light. YMMV.

In July 2014, AGR did permit a 1-zone redemption from MRC>WFH (connecting to the EB at PDX) on the SL/CS/EB. However this was during the craziness on the Hi-Line and the EB scheduled departure from PDX was moved ahead of the CS's same day arrival so the overnight hotel in Portland was on my...

With several years experience in RV financing, I found that most banks considered a FICO score over 720 to be top tier. But the generic FICO score you receive if you go online and pay for it may be different than what I saw, or your credit card, auto loan or mortgage lender sees. Different...

We were fortunate enough to have visited Whitefish (arriving on Amtk from PDX) and Glacier National Park last summer, then renting a car and driving the GTTS road and U.S. 2 back to Whitefish, including a stop at Essex. It is just an exceptionally beautiful area and I am dismayed and extremely...

Train or no train, he was about to enter the parallel U.S. 50/400, a fairly busy route between Dodge City and Pueblo CO. I would think he would be "looking into the sun" turning onto the highway. He and his son, as well as those on board the train were lucky this time. It could have been a lot...

As a relative newbie to AGR, my longest was last year: from MRC-LAX-PDX-WFH. Nowhere near a loop but a nice "c" shaped 1 zone redemption.

I have no interest in buying any points right now given the fact that AGR 2.0 is forthcoming, but my e-mail said "up to 40% bonus" and linking in with the "Reveal Bonus" would give me a 30% bonus.

Thanks, JoeBas, for the diagram. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The wife took a photo crossing a large body of water and I could not figure out where it was until i realized we were not on what Amtrak shows on the route map. And the large body of water was Lake Houston...

The scenic part of your trip, if SWC is on time will be Glorietta and Raton Passes in Northern New Mexico. It's a good time to be in the Sightseer Lounge car. Raton Pass is the highest point on the former Santa Fe Railroad. The California deserts and Kansas plains are crossed in darkness so...

It happened on our eastbound, #2(19) out of HOS a couple weeks ago. We left the station, stopped, waited, then backed up a mile or two. and headed down a different route. When we crossed Lake Houston, I knew we were on the former MoPac route from Houston to Beaumont. It could be standard...